The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 165

Part 24

"But really, when you consider the biggest collection fields and Gate portals that've ever been cast, or even the biggest amount of energy that's ever been cast at once in any way by anyone, including all of our gods and the Triax's together in their training, that's still just a drop in an ocean compared to the output and area of the sun. I strongly suspect that there are theoretical limits to what we can do that way that we're not yet aware of, and I'd be surprised if we can use more that a tiny portion's of the sun's output in any way."

"All right, let's do it." Fire stated decisively as she resumed her true form.

"Let's do it Linked." Povon insisted. "Let's do it all Linked. No mortal of Kellaran has even attempted to Translocate as far as we're jumping now, or even a tiny fraction of that distance. The other experiments you're attempting are almost beyond comprehension. We should all be checking every step of every part of it and be absolutely sure of it before we cast."

"Agreed." Mark nodded. "Let's start out as far from the sun as Kellaran is and see how big a collection field we can cast first. Then we'll try it closer to the sun until we know how much intensity and area we can transmute."

They all assumed their true forms and Linked fairly deeply, then cast Void Protection with all the latest improvements, including adaptations Povon had made of the new Xervian methods. Povon was given control of the Translocation due to her skill and experience. When everything was ready, she initiated the jump.

They emerged in what seemed like black emptiness, despite the millions of stars all around and the blazing sun, which was dimmed to viewability by the visual protections in the Void Protection. They all just floated there and absorbed the view for a moment.

"You know, we get so caught up in what we're doing that sometimes we don't pay any attention the incredibleness of it." Six commented. "I've only gone to the void to test voidcraft and void-proofing, and to take part in the exercises. I just kind of thought of the void as just night, only all around you. It seems like it, even with the sun in sight. I just did what I was doing and didn't pay attention to it. And Kellaran was always there, looking huge even when we were farthest from it.

"But this is really... powerful. This is so far away from anything, in the absolute middle of nowhere. It's really kind of scary."

"Very." Val agreed. "I can handle it, but I'd never do a long mission in the void without having a void craft along. This would make me crazy after a while, I think. It would make anyone catastrophically agoraphobic eventually. Not to mention that if our spells failed we'd be dead in seconds, and we're a very long way from any kind of help."

"We should get started." Talia prompted. "And by the way, what will we do with the energy you're collecting with your huge collection fields? It'll be too much to hold and too much to store."

"We should also consider that if we succeed in englobing the sun with a dense collection field, we'll cut Kellaran off from the Source." Alilia cautioned. "No sorcerers could cast, and wizard's power would soon start to diminish as well, as 'the heat of the stone' is released and not replenished. I don't suppose it could affect anyone except Glup if we cut off warlocks' power, but we might want to warn him in case he's in the middle of something dangerous."

"There's also the development of forty-four young warlocks in the wombs of The Volunteers, inside the time-bubble." Mark pointed out. "It probably wouldn't affect them any to be cut off from warlocks' power, but I don't want to take a chance.

"We'll limit trying to cast collection fields to the half of the sun opposite Kellaran. If we can cast them around half of it, we should be able to make a pretty good judgment of whether we could do it around the whole thing.

"As to what we'll do with the power we'll get, we could just cast it as light or heat or some other energy directed out into the void away from Kellaran, but that seems a waste, and I worry that we'll attract attention. We have enough visitors from the void already, and a beam of that power would be detectable many star systems away."

"We can just cast it over a very, very large area," Val suggested, "So the intensity of it won't be noticeable against the glare of the sun behind it, should anyone in that direction happen to be looking. In fact, after we've captured the energy with our collection fields, we should cast it again as energy of as similar a nature to what we captured as we can, so it all just looks the same."

"Good thinking." Mark nodded. "So let's work on that for a second first; and try to cast wizards' power as the Source, and do the same for warlocks' power."

"It should be no harder than transmuting the Source to wizards' power, which is easy now that we figured it out." Fire opined.

"I have a good astronomers' spell that we can use to analyze what we're casting." Povon volunteered.

"Let's start with me first." Val volunteered. "I'll start with the Source."

All of them followed what she was doing and checked on her as she cast an invisible energy on the opposite side of them from the sun, and directing it away from them. Povon cast her Spectrum Analyzer out beyond Val's spell in the path of the energy she was casting, and cast another copy of the Spectrum Analyzer close to Val herself.

Val modified her spell with some input from everyone else, until Povon declared; "That's it. You're casting the Source, well enough that a unicorn would be sustained by it and could utilize it. You're losing about a third in the three stages of transmutation; from Source to raw wizards' power as would radiate from wizard's rock, from raw wizards' power to wizard magic, and from magic back to the Source again."

"Yah, most of the loss is heat." Val nodded with her eyes closed. "I don't know what's happening to the rest of it, but give me a moment."

Povon waited while Val modified what she was doing again, then announced; "All right, you've got the efficiency loss down to just less than a fifth."

"That's the best I can do that way without a lot of work." Val stated. "And I don't think I can make it much better anyway.

"All right, I'll start expanding my collection field, and I'll expand the area of my Source-shine spell to match it."

After a few seconds she let Fire and Six take over the concentration on her Source-shine spell, and soon after that Karz cast to vent most of the heat that was building up in her body before her Healing was triggered.

After half a minute she was done. "All right, about seventy thousand square kilometers. Enough to cover most of Debivin. That's all I can cover with a collection field for the Source, and I think I'm losing collection efficiency around the edges. I don't know why, but that's all I can do.

"I'll try it with a warlock collection field now. I should be able to get a lot better efficiency because it's only two transmutations; wizard's source to magic and back."

"You're right, you're only losing a bit more than a tenth." Povon reported.

"But less of that is heat, so more of it is our unknown loss." Val noted, and prepared to expand the field. "All right, here goes."

A minute later they had the result.

"About a tenth bigger, that's it." she noted. "It sure is a lot more power though. And both sources are a lot stronger out here in the void. It seems the air around Kellaran blocks about a quarter of it." "I'll give it a try, then Fire and Six. Then we'll move closer to the sun." Mark told them as he cast.

"About two hundred and thirty-five thousand square kilometers." he noted twelve seconds later. "Which makes sense, since I'm bigger and more mature than you, so you'll probably catch up to that when you're grown."

"Or it's due to you being a full-blood warlock, and we're only half, so we won't." Val countered.

"I hope not." Mark laughed. "I'd hate to think of my descendents being diminished in power by half with every generation. I think warlocks breed true no matter what, like Longstrider males other than me."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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